"Honestly, not to toot my own horn, but I think I'm in the best shape of my college career," said Pendergraph, 6-feet-9 and 240 pounds. "I might be able to hang with anybody in the (Pac-10) right now; that's just how I feel. I worked hard all summer."

Although the Sun Devils have received plenty of preseason publicity, no one is sure how that will transfer onto the court. For now, only one thing seems certain: They will be stronger, almost across the board.

According to Rich Wenner, associate head coach for sports performance, four Sun Devils - Pendergraph, James Harden, Ty Abbott and Derek Glasser - are bench-pressing 315 pounds, the most on an ASU basketball team in 20 years.

"Part of it is what you do in the weight room, and part of it is just normal maturation," ASU coach Herb Sendek said. "We played a lot of freshmen last year, and it's been my experience that the year your body maybe changes the most is that freshman-to-sophomore period."

Abbott, a sophomore, was listed at 200 pounds last season. This year he's at 215. Harden was listed at 6-foot-4, but he grew a half-inch in the offseason, from 6-3 3/4 to 6-4 1/4 in bare feet. ASU will list him at 6-5.

Then there's junior center Eric Boateng.

"Believe it or not, his body-fat percentage is now about 8 percent, which is incredible," Sendek said. "I don't remember precisely (where he was when he arrived in 2006), but I'm going to say it was in the neighborhood of (14) percent, so he literally has carved out a new body."

The Sun Devils are weighed every day to make sure everyone's in good health. Pendergraph recalls his freshman season, "when I was like this big," he says, spreading his hands about 8 inches apart and bringing them down the length of his chest.

"There were some girls on the women's basketball team that could bench more than me," he said. "I was not strong, just tall. I had never lifted in high school."

Pendergraph's maximum bench press has increased 130 pounds. His weight has increased nearly 50 pounds, which he says makes people "trip out" whenever he returns home to California. He finds that encouraging.

"If I can keep my weight up through the season to somewhere between 240 to 245," Pendergraph said, "I'll be a definite problem for a lot of people."